Between the mental and physical fatigue of being chronically ill and the constant need to feel “prepared” when starting care with a new medical team, you’re going to take all the help you can get wading through all your medical files and lists. Because let’s be real, they are both extensive. So, it’s no wonder that you turn to AI to help you manage it all. And we 100% understand that managing it all the old-fashioned pen-and-paper way doesn’t work for everyone. Not to mention, if you’re neurodivergent, it can be hard to know what to say, how much to say, or to stay on track at an appointment.
And although we still recommend bringing someone with you to your appointments, we know that’s not always possible. So how do you get help advocating for what you need, thoroughly explaining your symptoms, or remembering everything that’s discussed? In the past year, more and more of our patients are turning to AI to help them prepare for their appointments. So, we’ve compiled a list of the most helpful ways to use AI to prepare for your medical appointment.
A note before we get into it.
AI is a tool to help you prepare, not a replacement for comprehensive diagnosis. We love that AI helps patients feel more assertive and prepared, and can bridge the knowledge gaps between clinicians and patients. And although AI is skilled at recognizing patterns, it’s only as good as the information you provide and the questions you ask. Meaning, unless you bring something up, it’s not going to consider it. AI tools only know what you provide and aren’t inherently good at reading between the lines or picking up on unique variables.
1. Personal Communication Needs
The biggest variable amongst humans is how people communicate, and that’s especially true in medicine. Which is why understanding what you need in effective communication is so important. Having a list of personal communication needs to give your provider means you both know what you need to be successful. So where does AI play into this?
If you’ve been using AI for a while, your favorite AI tool probably has a good handle on your personal communication habits. Do you need things to be direct? Will you lose track with lots of detail? Do you need analogies in the form of episodes of The Simpsons?
Here’s a prompt that helps your AI tool develop a list of 5 key communication needs for success.
“Based on our conversations, create a brief list of my top 5 communication needs that help me process and retain information effectively. Write it in plain language that I could either use as a personal reminder before appointments or hand directly to a new clinician. Format it as a simple numbered list with one short sentence per need.”
2. Comprehensive and organized lists of symptoms, triggers, and timelines
One of the hardest things for patients is remembering all the symptoms they have, especially if they have been dealing with symptoms for a really long time. As clinicians, the more information we have, the more effectively we can develop a targeted care strategy. So when patients have a thorough list of their symptoms, the triggers that cause them, and any historical timelines, it can significantly improve the care experience.
If you use digital notepads or even pen and paper to track your symptoms, you can have your favorite AI tool consolidate them and turn them into organized lists. Some patients even have ongoing chats where they can report symptoms, and their AI tool can then ask follow-up questions about triggers and timing.
You see, your medical records and past treatment notes from outside care teams don’t show us what you’re experiencing. They give analytical reports of what you reported and what they observed. So if you have symptoms or triggers that weren’t included, we end up with a gap in information. But if you’ve been using your AI tool to track symptoms, triggers, and timing, we can narrow that gap.
Here’s a prompt that helps your AI tool organize a list of symptoms, triggers, and timelines to aid your clinician.
“Using the symptom information I’ve shared with you, create an organized symptom report I can bring to a new clinician. Group symptoms three ways: first by body system (digestive, neurological, hormonal, musculoskeletal, etc.), then by timeline (when symptoms first appeared and how they’ve changed over time), and finally by known triggers (food, stress, activity, time of day, cycle timing, etc.). Use plain language, keep each entry brief, and format it so a clinician can scan it quickly. Note any recurring patterns you observe across symptoms and triggers, for example, ‘symptoms tend to worsen within an hour of eating high-histamine foods’ or ‘fatigue and brain fog consistently follow poor sleep and high-stress days’. Keep all observations descriptive and specific to what I’ve reported.”
3. Developing a list of key concerns and questions
It would be fantastic if you walked into a medical office, and the thing you are most concerned with happened while you were actually in the office. But for whatever reason, it feels like medical offices have magic doors where the hope and possibility of answers make your body react like it never had a worry or symptom. TikTok makes it seem like “magic door syndrome.”
Not to mention, when meeting a new provider for the first time, telling your story can be extremely emotionally draining. Especially if you have experienced trauma of any kind, struggle with communication, or get really nervous in new settings. Which can inadvertently make people’s brains go blank and all the questions and concerns they wanted to bring up disappear.
Developing a list of key concerns and questions can really help ensure you are able to advocate for yourself. It’s a great way to use the knowledge your AI tool has developed along the way and pair it with questions about things you’ve yet to discuss. It gives you time (outside the medical office) to work through what matters most to you and to create well-thought-out questions for your new clinician.
Here’s an AI prompt to develop a list of key concerns and questions in preparation for an appointment with your clinician.
If you’ve been using an AI tool to track your medical concerns:
“Based on everything we’ve discussed about my health, symptoms, and experiences, help me prepare for an upcoming appointment with a new clinician. Before you create anything, ask me any additional questions you need to make sure you have a complete picture of my current concerns. Once we’ve covered everything, create a prioritized list of my top concerns I want to make sure get addressed, even if I freeze up or lose track. Then develop a list of specific questions I want to ask. Order both lists by what matters most to me. Keep the language simple enough that I can read directly from this list if I need to. If any of my questions or concerns involve medical terms I may not fully understand, include a plain language key at the end defining those terms so I can reference it during my appointment.”
If you haven’t been using an AI tool to track your medical concerns:
“I have an upcoming appointment with a new clinician and want to feel prepared. I’m going to share my main health concerns and symptoms with you now. As I share, ask me follow-up questions about timing, triggers, and how these symptoms affect my daily life. Once we’ve talked through everything, ask me any additional questions you need to make sure nothing important gets left out. Then help me create a prioritized list of concerns I want to make sure get addressed and a list of questions I want to ask my clinician. Keep the language simple enough that I can read directly from this list if I need to. If any of my questions or concerns involve medical terms I may not fully understand, include a plain language key at the end defining those terms so I can reference it during my appointment.”
Now we can’t just talk about all the ways to utilize AI in preparation for your appointment without noting one significant limitation. Understanding the limitations of a system is just as important as using its strengths, so let’s get into it.
Where AI tends to fall short in preparing for a medical appointment.
We want you to feel as comfortable and confident during your appointment as possible. But there is one thing that can cause more struggle than benefit when using AI to prepare for an appointment: asking AI to provide a diagnosis outright.
For one, any AI tool will tell you that it can’t diagnose you. But we also understand that when you are desperate to feel like you have answers, and have experienced being pushed around without any helpful treatments or answers, you use what you have access to. Making it tempting to still ask your AI tool for a diagnosis.
But here’s the downside.
Often, the AI tool recognizes patterns but doesn’t necessarily grasp all the nuances of a specific case. And when it provides a list of diagnosis options, desperation can latch on and, in some cases, not want to let go. Even in instances where the suggested diagnoses don’t fit the actual nuanced data, details, and presenting symptoms. This, in turn, can cause more frustration, not less, because what felt freeing can become a sticking point. Making it hard to move on to a better diagnostic fit or to accept the time it takes to get better data and clearer answers.
In the end, whether you prepare for your appointment by discussing what’s important with a trusted friend or by using AI, our goal is to make sure you feel that what is important to you is addressed. Having ways to make communication with your care team easier improves the experience for everyone. We hope these prompts and ideas help as you work toward your health goals. If you are still in search of a clinician to help you get real answers about your medical concerns, our team is here to help.